Betsy and Lucy Bell
by TheBellChronicles
Summary: It's Elizabeth Bell's sixteenth birthday and she and her mother share a moment. (An American HAUNTING- not An American in Paris)


Red River, Tennessee 1816

Elizabeth Bell awoke that morning, hearing the birds chirping. A smile played across her full lips to hear such a sweet sound. It had seemed so long since she had heard it. The northern Tennessee winter had seemed like it would never end. All of those beautiful Birchwood trees, once dead, now were blooming back into life.

Betsy sat up against her pillows, and having puffed them out, stretched her arms behind her. She felt utterly relaxed.

Out in the hall, Lucy Bell was following her husband John out of their room and down the stairs as she did every Friday morning to see him out the door on his way to market to do some bartering.

"Now John, you've simply got to join the party tonight. We are surprising Betsy and bringing the whole schoolhouse; by the time they arrive she'll have been walking from town with Theny."

"Well, my dear, the whole schoolhouse can do without me, Reverend Row has cards set up for tonight as usual, and I know Betsy won't miss her old man embarrassing her in front of that Joshua Gardner."

"Oh, John," Lucy gave him a light shove, "Don't let their budding love keep you away from your daughter on her birthday! You remember how we were…?" Lucy smiled up at him and helped him with his coat. John kissed her on the cheek and put on his hat.

"We'll see."

"Oh, thank you, Dear – and you may invite Reverend Row and all of your buddies!"

"Come now, I am not gonna go _that_ far to spoil little Betsy's day!" With that, he walked out the door and down the spring-lined path.

"She's not so little anymore." Lucy sighed to herself, waving and smiling as John went off through the maze of forestry, corn and soybean field.

Meanwhile Betsy had got out of her bed and into her slippers. She seated herself at her bedside dresser and mirror to brush her hair.

She heard a knock on her door.

"Come in." Betsy said. Lucy Bell walked in with fresh linen.

"Well… There is a rumor about the village that it's a young lady's sixteenth birthday today." Lucy placed the linen on the window seat.

"Oh, I wonder who that could be…" Betsy smiled, playing along. Her mother walked behind Betsy and knelt down to place her arms on Betsy's shoulders. They looked at each other through the mirror.

"You, of course" Lucy smiled. Betsy looked up at her mother and back at their reflection in the mirror. She was finally sixteen; a real lady. Lucy, kissing Betsy on the head, walked toward the cabinet to sort through some things.

"Do you think they'll notice, mama?" Betsy asked, brushing her hair eagerly.

"Oh your school friends surely will. All the younger girls will be mighty smug to see what a fine sixteen-year-old you are!"

"Not, the kids, all of your friends- Mrs. Pennyworth and them…?" Betsy's mother chuckled at her daughter's adorable frankness. So it wasn't the children she was trying to impress, it Lucy's own friends.

"To be certain, Carla Pennyworth and all the rest will come to tea this morning as usual and you can wear your pretty new frock to impress them."

"… _new_ frock?" Betsy's eyes widened; she hadn't even noticed that her mother had been holding something behind her back, either that, or Betsy had assumed it was more linen.

Lucy smiled at her daughter.

"Guess which hand?" Betsy squeezed her silver-blue eyes shut and pointed to Lucy's right hand.

"Well done!" Lucy whipped out the light blue frock. Betsy clasped her hands together to her heart, and leaped up from her chair.

"Oh, mother, I love it!" She said excitedly, taking the dress and modeling it in front of the mirror. Betsy gave her mama a big hug. "I'll wear it _forever._ "

"Well, let's hope you change sometime, as you don't wanna be all stunk-up; especially when you're gonna see Joshua for a little while today…" Lucy teased. Betsy blushed and crinkled her nose in embarrassment.

"Now, mama, Joshua's just all good fun."

"Mmmmm hmmm, isn't he though?"

The two of them spent that whole morning getting Betsy all prettied up for her mother's friends coming for tea. It was one of Betsy's fondest memories with her mother; just the two of them in her room, the boys still asleep.


End file.
